Pierre Avoi Sunset: 360° View over the Swiss Alps

Alright, the original desire was to do the 'Tour des Dents du Midi' in 3 days, including an attempt at 'Haute Cime' in June 2016. That was a little too ambitious as there's just been way too much snow for the past few weeks right before our start.

After 2 and a half days of beautiful walks, thousands of meters of ascends and descends and finally getting stuck in some snowfields above our level of experience we decided to feed our 'peak-hunger' with Pierre Avoi, with view on the Dents du Midi to the West, Grand Combin South, and the Rhône valley right beneath us to the North.

Even though thunderstorms were predicted, we decided to go for it and drive up from Riddes to Croix de Coeur. Stopped to be the only guests at the restaurant of Croix de Coeur, have a nice cold beer and an even better conversation in a mix of French and English about what the weather was going to be like. The lady who brought us our beers said the thunderstorms should be here pretty soon and they were going to be bad. We'd better make our way up to Savoleyres, and hike up to the peak from there.

And so we did. We found our way to Savoleyres, parked our car and emptied our backpacks as much as possible from anything we may have needed on a multi-day hike around the Dents du Midi, but not up here. As the sun was setting we were on our way up.

We got up there at around 20:00 (8pm) to enjoy the changing light as the sun was lowering its position by the minute. Great way to end this attempt at the Dents du Midi & Haute Cime, and the incredible views from Pierre Avoi helped us forget about the pain of not being able to continue our original plan. Taking in the scenery, we finally took one last look at the Dents du Midi and promised it that we would be back and deal with it later!

Thanks to Pierre Avoi for being a friend in time of need...

Published: June 30, 2016

Always practice Leave No Trace ethics on your adventures and follow local regulations.